INNOVATION Centennial Collectors Edition January-February 2020

1940 s TO 1970 s MAJOR CIVIL ENGINEERING PROJECTS TAKE OFF, WITH HELP FROM BC’S FIRST ENGINEERING GEOLOGIST Victor Dolmage became the first engineering geologist in British Columbia when he was sent west to head the BC Division of the Geological Survey of Canada in 1922, responsible for mapping the geology of vast stretches of this province. In 1929, Dolmage opened his own consulting geologist practice in Vancouver. It was the beginning of the depression, however, and work was scarce: he earned only $35 in fees that first year. For the next 10 years, Dolmage taught structural geology and economic geology part-time at UBC until finally, in the 1940s, the market for his particular skills opened up dramatically. Over the next 30 years, Dolmage’s broad knowledge of the soils and rock formations of British Columbia contributed to the success of countless major civil engineering projects, including: • the power tunnel and underground powerhouse of the Kemano generating station, completed in 1954 to provide hydroelectricity for Alcan’s Kitimat aluminum smelter. The project not only required the construction of the largest rockfill dam in the world at the time, it also needed a 16-kilometre- long water intake tunnel running right through the Coast Mountain range; • one of the world’s largest non-nuclear explosions on April 5, 1958, demolishing the underwater mountain known as Ripple Rock, which once sat just 2.7 metres below the surface in Seymour Narrows, the critical navigation channel between the mainland and Vancouver Island. Ripple Rock claimed at least a hundred vessels and 110 lives. The explosion is a designated Event of National Historic Significance in Canada, and was broadcast live on CBC Television; • BC Hydro’s W.A.C. Bennett Dam, completed in 1968 at a cost of $750 million. Topping out at 183 metres high, the Bennett is the largest dam in British Columbia, and one of highest earth-filled dams anywhere in the world. Dolmage also consulted on damsites for BC Hydro’s Wahleach, Daisy Lake, Terzaghi, Mica Creek, and Revelstoke power projects.

The front page of the June 22, 1923, edition of the Grand Forks Sun and Kettle Valley Orchardist announces that Victor Dolmage will spend “a season” surveying Copper Mountain, near Princeton. UBC A rchives

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